Cubs Win!

October 14, 1908: Cubs win! The 1908 World Series between the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago Cubs ended with the Cubs winning their fourth game. The Cubs were playing with player/manager Frank Chance in charge while the Tigers had Hughie Jennings as manager. The games were played at Bennett Park and West Side Park, neither of them still in existence. The Tigers moved to Navin Field in 1912 which changed its name to Briggs Stadium in 1938 and then to Tiger Stadium in 1961. It was owned by the team from 1912 to 1977 when the City of Detroit took it over. It was demolished in 2008-2009. The home of the Tigers has been Comerica Park since 2000.

West Side Park was home to the Cubs from 1885-1891 and 1894 to 1915. The park was demolished in 1920. The Cubs move to Wrigley Field in 1916 and remain there to this day. Although they have played on the same field since 1916, there were major renovations in 1937 and 1988 as well as expansions in 1922, 1927, and 2006. The original construction cost was $250,000 which is nearly $6 million in today’s dollars. Wrigley Field was designated a Chicago Landmark on February 1, 2004. It is the oldest National League ballpark and the second oldest active major league ballpark with Fenway Park being older.

The first game of the Series was played on October 10 in Detroit and the Cubs won it 10-6 in front of 10,812 fans. They teams traveled to Chicago for the next two games and split them. On October 11 17,760 people watched the Cubs win with a score of 6-1 but the next day, the Tigers came back with an 8-3 win as 14,543 people watched from the stands. Then they traveled back to Detroit and the Cubs shut them out with 3-0 score on October 13 with 12,907 in attendance and the final game needed for the series was another shutout with a 2-0 score for the winning team. The Detroit fans must have been quite dispirited as only 6,210 people were at the final game, the most poorly attended game in World Series history.

The Cubs took the title for the second year in a row. It is also the last time the Cubs won the World Series. They have made it to the final series on several occasions – 1910, 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, and 1945. They lost each time. Each team sported Hall of Famers on their roster. The Cubs had Mordecai Brown, Frank Chance, Johnny Evers, Joe Tinker of Evers to Tinker to Chance fame. The Tigers had Sam Crawford and Ty Cobb playing for them with Cobb having an even better season than he had the year before. It was not enough to get the Tigers the pennant – that year. The Tigers have gone on to four World Series titles: 1935, beating the Cubs, 1945, again beating the Cubs, 1968, and 1984.

You don’t just accidentally show up in the World Series. – Derek Jeter

A World Series trophy is a wonderful thing to behold. – Willie Stargell

The only reason I don’t like playing in the World Series is I can’t watch myself play. – Reggie Jackson

I really want to see the Cubs in the World Series. I really do. – Dennis Quaid

Also on this day: Pooh Corner – In 1926, A.A. Milne published his first Pooh story.Bull Moose – In 1912, presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt was shot.Ready! Camera! Action! – In 1888, the oldest surviving movie was filmed.Buzz – In 1912, Claude Grahame-White flew.